Continuous Vertical Track Deflection Measurements to Map Subgrade Condition along a Railway Line: Methodology and Case Studies
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 12
Abstract
This paper presents the methodology developed for the use of continuous vertical track deflection measurements from a moving loaded rail car to map the subgrade condition along a railway line. This analysis of deflection data was developed following the collection of more than 12,000 km of measurements. It was evident from the collected data that unprocessed deflection measurements are heavily effected by the track surface condition such as joints and geometry irregularities so as to obscure the deflections because of poor subgrade support. A filtering method was employed to minimize the influence of the surface condition which occur at short wavelengths and show the variations in track deflections because of changes in subgrade conditions which occur at longer wavelengths. The resulting processed data are compared with the geology over two study railway subdivisions to demonstrate that the processed vertical track deflection measurements are representative of the subgrade conditions. The filtering process, examples of the effect of track surface on the deflection measurements, and the limitations of the resulting data are also discussed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank both Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway for their support and facilitation of this project. Specifically, Tom Edwards and Eddie Choi for facilitating the collection of these data sets. This research was made possible through the Canadian Rail Research Laboratory (CaRRL) (http://www.carrl.ca/), which is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Pacific Railway, Canadian National Railway, the Association of American Railways – Transportation Technology Centre Inc., the National Research Council of Canada, Transport Canada, and Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 12 • December 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 29, 2016
Accepted: May 4, 2016
Published online: Jul 14, 2016
Published in print: Dec 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Dec 14, 2016
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